Delegated Authentication

CAS can act as a client (i.e. service provider or proxy) using the Pac4j library and delegate the authentication to:

  • CAS servers
  • SAML2 identity providers
  • OAuth2 providers such as Facebook, Twitter, GitHub, Google, LinkedIn, etc
  • OpenID Connect identity providers such as Google, Apple
  • ADFS

Support is enabled by including the following dependency in the WAR overlay:

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<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apereo.cas</groupId>
  <artifactId>cas-server-support-pac4j-webflow</artifactId>
  <version>${cas.version}</version>
</dependency>

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implementation "org.apereo.cas:cas-server-support-pac4j-webflow:${project.'cas.version'}"

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dependencyManagement {
  imports {
    mavenBom "org.apereo.cas:cas-server-support-bom:${project.'cas.version'}"
  }
}

dependencies {  
  implementation "org.apereo.cas:cas-server-support-pac4j-webflow"
}

The following settings and properties are available from the CAS configuration catalog:

The configuration settings listed below are tagged as Required in the CAS configuration metadata. This flag indicates that the presence of the setting may be needed to activate or affect the behavior of the CAS feature and generally should be reviewed, possibly owned and adjusted. If the setting is assigned a default value, you do not need to strictly put the setting in your copy of the configuration, but should review it nonetheless to make sure it matches your deployment expectations.

  • cas.authn.pac4j.core.groovy-provider-post-processor.location=

    • The location of the resource. Resources can be URLS, or files found either on the classpath or outside somewhere in the file system.

    In the event the configured resource is a Groovy script, specially if the script set to reload on changes, you may need to adjust the total number of inotify instances. On Linux, you may need to add the following line to /etc/sysctl.conf: fs.inotify.max_user_instances = 256.

    You can check the current value via cat /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_instances.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.SpringResourceProperties.
  • cas.authn.pac4j.core.groovy-redirection-strategy.location=

    • The location of the resource. Resources can be URLS, or files found either on the classpath or outside somewhere in the file system.

    In the event the configured resource is a Groovy script, specially if the script set to reload on changes, you may need to adjust the total number of inotify instances. On Linux, you may need to add the following line to /etc/sysctl.conf: fs.inotify.max_user_instances = 256.

    You can check the current value via cat /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_instances.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.SpringResourceProperties.
  • cas.authn.pac4j.core.discovery-selection.json.location=

    • The location of the resource. Resources can be URLS, or files found either on the classpath or outside somewhere in the file system.

    In the event the configured resource is a Groovy script, specially if the script set to reload on changes, you may need to adjust the total number of inotify instances. On Linux, you may need to add the following line to /etc/sysctl.conf: fs.inotify.max_user_instances = 256.

    You can check the current value via cat /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_instances.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.pac4j.Pac4jDelegatedAuthenticationDiscoverySelectionJsonProperties.
  • cas.authn.pac4j.core.discovery-selection.selection-type=MENU

    • Indicate how the selection and presentation of identity providers would be controlled. Available values are as follows:

    • MENU: Defined identity providers will be listed for the user to select.
    • DYNAMIC: Defined identity providers are pre-built first, and one is chosen dynamically at runtime based on user attributes properties, domain identifier, etc.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.pac4j.Pac4jDelegatedAuthenticationDiscoverySelectionProperties.
    The configuration settings listed below are tagged as Optional in the CAS configuration metadata. This flag indicates that the presence of the setting is not immediately necessary in the end-user CAS configuration, because a default value is assigned or the activation of the feature is not conditionally controlled by the setting value.

  • cas.authn.pac4j.core.lazy-init=true

    • Whether initialization of delegated identity providers should be done eagerly typically during startup.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.pac4j.Pac4jDelegatedAuthenticationCoreProperties.
  • cas.authn.pac4j.core.name=

    • The name of the authentication handler in CAS used for delegation.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.pac4j.Pac4jDelegatedAuthenticationCoreProperties.
  • cas.authn.pac4j.core.order=

    • Order of the authentication handler in the chain.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.pac4j.Pac4jDelegatedAuthenticationCoreProperties.
  • cas.authn.pac4j.core.principal-attribute-id=

    • The attribute to use as the principal identifier built during and upon a successful authentication attempt.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.pac4j.Pac4jDelegatedAuthenticationCoreProperties.
  • cas.authn.pac4j.core.replicate-sessions=true

    • Indicates whether profiles and other session data, collected as part of pac4j flows and requests that are kept by the container session, should be replicated across the cluster using CAS and its own ticket registry. Without this option, profile data and other related pieces of information should be manually replicated via means and libraries outside of CAS.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.pac4j.Pac4jDelegatedAuthenticationCoreProperties.
  • cas.authn.pac4j.core.typed-id-used=false

    • When constructing the final user profile from the delegated provider, determines if the provider id should be combined with the principal id.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.pac4j.Pac4jDelegatedAuthenticationCoreProperties.

    Configuration Metadata

    The collection of configuration properties listed in this section are automatically generated from the CAS source and components that contain the actual field definitions, types, descriptions, modules, etc. This metadata may not always be 100% accurate, or could be lacking details and sufficient explanations.

    Be Selective

    This section is meant as a guide only. Do NOT copy/paste the entire collection of settings into your CAS configuration; rather pick only the properties that you need. Do NOT enable settings unless you are certain of their purpose and do NOT copy settings into your configuration only to keep them as reference. All these ideas lead to upgrade headaches, maintenance nightmares and premature aging.

    YAGNI

    Note that for nearly ALL use cases, declaring and configuring properties listed here is sufficient. You should NOT have to explicitly massage a CAS XML/Java/etc configuration file to design an authentication handler, create attribute release policies, etc. CAS at runtime will auto-configure all required changes for you. If you are unsure about the meaning of a given CAS setting, do NOT turn it on without hesitation. Review the codebase or better yet, ask questions to clarify the intended behavior.

    Naming Convention

    Property names can be specified in very relaxed terms. For instance cas.someProperty, cas.some-property, cas.some_property are all valid names. While all forms are accepted by CAS, there are certain components (in CAS and other frameworks used) whose activation at runtime is conditional on a property value, where this property is required to have been specified in CAS configuration using kebab case. This is both true for properties that are owned by CAS as well as those that might be presented to the system via an external library or framework such as Spring Boot, etc. When possible, properties should be stored in lower-case kebab format, such as cas.property-name=value.S ettings and properties that are controlled by the CAS platform directly always begin with the prefix cas. All other settings are controlled and provided to CAS via other underlying frameworks and may have their own schemas and syntax. BE CAREFUL with the distinction. Unrecognized properties are rejected by CAS and/or frameworks upon which CAS depends. This means if you somehow misspell a property definition or fail to adhere to the dot-notation syntax and such, your setting is entirely refused by CAS and likely the feature it controls will never be activated in the way you intend.

    Validation

    Configuration properties are automatically validated on CAS startup to report issues with configuration binding, specially if defined CAS settings cannot be recognized or validated by the configuration schema. The validation process is on by default and can be skipped on startup using a special system property SKIP_CONFIG_VALIDATION that should be set to true. Additional validation processes are also handled via Configuration Metadata and property migrations applied automatically on startup by Spring Boot and family.

    Indexed Settings

    CAS settings able to accept multiple values are typically documented with an index, such as cas.some.setting[0]=value. The index [0] is meant to be incremented by the adopter to allow for distinct multiple configuration blocks.

    Note

    The client issuing the authentication request can be of any type (SAML, OAuth2, OpenID Connect, etc) and is allowed to submit the authentication request using any protocol that the CAS server supports and is configured to understand. This means that you may have an OAuth2 client using CAS in delegation mode to authenticate at an external SAML2 identity provider, another CAS server or Facebook and in the end of that flow receiving an OAuth2 user profile. The CAS server is able to act as a proxy, doing the protocol translation in the middle.

    Register Providers

    An identity provider is a server which can authenticate users (like Google, Yahoo…) instead of a CAS server. If you want to delegate the CAS authentication to Twitter for example, you have to add an OAuth client for the Twitter provider, which will be done automatically for you once provider settings are taught to CAS.

    Notice that for each OAuth provider, the CAS server is considered as an OAuth client and therefore should be declared as an OAuth client at the OAuth provider. After the declaration, a key and a secret is given by the OAuth provider which has to be defined in the CAS configuration as well.

    Default

    Identity providers for delegated authentication can be registered with CAS using settings.

    ProviderReference
    Apple See this guide.
    Azure AD See this guide.
    CAS See this guide.
    DropBox See this guide.
    Facebook See this guide.
    FourSquare See this guide.
    Generic OpenID Connect See this guide.
    GitHub See this guide.
    Google See this guide.
    Google OpenID Connect See this guide.
    HiOrgServer See this guide.
    Keycloak See this guide.
    LinkedIn See this guide.
    OAuth20 See this guide.
    PayPal See this guide.
    SAML See this guide.
    Twitter See this guide.
    WindowsLive See this guide.
    Wordpress See this guide.
    Yahoo See this guide.

    REST

    Identity providers for delegated authentication can be provided to CAS using an external REST endpoint.

    The following settings and properties are available from the CAS configuration catalog:

    The configuration settings listed below are tagged as Required in the CAS configuration metadata. This flag indicates that the presence of the setting may be needed to activate or affect the behavior of the CAS feature and generally should be reviewed, possibly owned and adjusted. If the setting is assigned a default value, you do not need to strictly put the setting in your copy of the configuration, but should review it nonetheless to make sure it matches your deployment expectations.

  • cas.authn.pac4j.rest.url=

    • The endpoint URL to contact and retrieve attributes.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.pac4j.Pac4jDelegatedAuthenticationRestfulProperties.
    The configuration settings listed below are tagged as Optional in the CAS configuration metadata. This flag indicates that the presence of the setting is not immediately necessary in the end-user CAS configuration, because a default value is assigned or the activation of the feature is not conditionally controlled by the setting value.

  • cas.authn.pac4j.rest.basic-auth-password=

    • If REST endpoint is protected via basic authentication, specify the password for authentication.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.pac4j.Pac4jDelegatedAuthenticationRestfulProperties.
  • cas.authn.pac4j.rest.basic-auth-username=

    • If REST endpoint is protected via basic authentication, specify the username for authentication.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.pac4j.Pac4jDelegatedAuthenticationRestfulProperties.
  • cas.authn.pac4j.rest.cache-duration=PT8H

    • Control the expiration policy of the cache that holds on the results from the rest api.

    This settings supports the java.time.Duration syntax [?].

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.pac4j.Pac4jDelegatedAuthenticationRestfulProperties.
  • cas.authn.pac4j.rest.headers=

    • Headers, defined as a Map, to include in the request when making the REST call. Will overwrite any header that CAS is pre-defined to send and include in the request. Key in the map should be the header name and the value in the map should be the header value.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.pac4j.Pac4jDelegatedAuthenticationRestfulProperties.
  • cas.authn.pac4j.rest.method=GET

    • HTTP method to use when contacting the rest endpoint. Examples include GET, POST, etc.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.pac4j.Pac4jDelegatedAuthenticationRestfulProperties.

    Configuration Metadata

    The collection of configuration properties listed in this section are automatically generated from the CAS source and components that contain the actual field definitions, types, descriptions, modules, etc. This metadata may not always be 100% accurate, or could be lacking details and sufficient explanations.

    Be Selective

    This section is meant as a guide only. Do NOT copy/paste the entire collection of settings into your CAS configuration; rather pick only the properties that you need. Do NOT enable settings unless you are certain of their purpose and do NOT copy settings into your configuration only to keep them as reference. All these ideas lead to upgrade headaches, maintenance nightmares and premature aging.

    YAGNI

    Note that for nearly ALL use cases, declaring and configuring properties listed here is sufficient. You should NOT have to explicitly massage a CAS XML/Java/etc configuration file to design an authentication handler, create attribute release policies, etc. CAS at runtime will auto-configure all required changes for you. If you are unsure about the meaning of a given CAS setting, do NOT turn it on without hesitation. Review the codebase or better yet, ask questions to clarify the intended behavior.

    Naming Convention

    Property names can be specified in very relaxed terms. For instance cas.someProperty, cas.some-property, cas.some_property are all valid names. While all forms are accepted by CAS, there are certain components (in CAS and other frameworks used) whose activation at runtime is conditional on a property value, where this property is required to have been specified in CAS configuration using kebab case. This is both true for properties that are owned by CAS as well as those that might be presented to the system via an external library or framework such as Spring Boot, etc. When possible, properties should be stored in lower-case kebab format, such as cas.property-name=value.S ettings and properties that are controlled by the CAS platform directly always begin with the prefix cas. All other settings are controlled and provided to CAS via other underlying frameworks and may have their own schemas and syntax. BE CAREFUL with the distinction. Unrecognized properties are rejected by CAS and/or frameworks upon which CAS depends. This means if you somehow misspell a property definition or fail to adhere to the dot-notation syntax and such, your setting is entirely refused by CAS and likely the feature it controls will never be activated in the way you intend.

    Validation

    Configuration properties are automatically validated on CAS startup to report issues with configuration binding, specially if defined CAS settings cannot be recognized or validated by the configuration schema. The validation process is on by default and can be skipped on startup using a special system property SKIP_CONFIG_VALIDATION that should be set to true. Additional validation processes are also handled via Configuration Metadata and property migrations applied automatically on startup by Spring Boot and family.

    Indexed Settings

    CAS settings able to accept multiple values are typically documented with an index, such as cas.some.setting[0]=value. The index [0] is meant to be incremented by the adopter to allow for distinct multiple configuration blocks.

    This allows the CAS server to reach to a remote REST endpoint whose responsibility is to produce the following payload in the response body:

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    {
    "callbackUrl": "https://sso.example.org/cas/login",
    "properties": {
        "github.id": "...",
        "github.secret": "...",
        
        "cas.loginUrl.1": "...",
        "cas.protocol.1": "..."
    }
}

    The syntax and collection of available properties in the above payload is controlled by the pac4j library. The response that is returned must be accompanied by a 200 status code.

    Profile Attributes

    In CAS-protected applications, through service ticket validation, user information are pushed to the CAS client and therefore to the application itself.

    The identifier of the user is always pushed to the CAS client. For user attributes, it involves both the configuration at the server and the way of validating service tickets.

    On CAS server side, to push attributes to the CAS client, it should be configured in the expected service:

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    {
  "@class" : "org.apereo.cas.services.RegexRegisteredService",
  "serviceId" : "sample",
  "name" : "sample",
  "id" : 100,
  "description" : "sample",
  "attributeReleasePolicy" : {
    "@class" : "org.apereo.cas.services.ReturnAllowedAttributeReleasePolicy",
    "allowedAttributes" : [ "java.util.ArrayList", [ "name", "first_name", "middle_name" ] ]
  }
}

    Discovery Selection

    Please see this guide.

    Authentication Policy

    Please see this guide.

    Provisioning

    Please see this guide.

    Post Processing

    Please see this guide.

    Session Replication

    For the current active session, the selected identity provider, the relying party and all other relevant details for the given authentication request are tracked as session attributes inside a dedicated session store capable of replication, which is specially more relevant for clustered deployments.

    The following settings and properties are available from the CAS configuration catalog:

    The configuration settings listed below are tagged as Required in the CAS configuration metadata. This flag indicates that the presence of the setting may be needed to activate or affect the behavior of the CAS feature and generally should be reviewed, possibly owned and adjusted. If the setting is assigned a default value, you do not need to strictly put the setting in your copy of the configuration, but should review it nonetheless to make sure it matches your deployment expectations.

    The configuration settings listed below are tagged as Optional in the CAS configuration metadata. This flag indicates that the presence of the setting is not immediately necessary in the end-user CAS configuration, because a default value is assigned or the activation of the feature is not conditionally controlled by the setting value.

  • cas.session-replication.cookie.allowed-ip-addresses-pattern=

    • A regular expression pattern that indicates the set of allowed IP addresses, when #isPinToSession() is cofigured. In the event that there is a mismatch between the cookie IP address and the current request-provided IP address (i.e. network switches, VPN, etc), the cookie can still be considered valid if the new IP address matches the pattern specified here.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.replication.CookieSessionReplicationProperties.
  • cas.session-replication.cookie.auto-configure-cookie-path=true

    • Decide if cookie paths should be automatically configured based on the application context path, when the cookie path is not configured.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.replication.CookieSessionReplicationProperties.
  • cas.session-replication.cookie.comment=CAS Cookie

    • CAS Cookie comment, describes the cookie's usage and purpose.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.replication.CookieSessionReplicationProperties.
  • cas.session-replication.cookie.domain=

    • Cookie domain. Specifies the domain within which this cookie should be presented. The form of the domain name is specified by RFC 2965. A domain name begins with a dot (.foo.com) and means that the cookie is visible to servers in a specified Domain Name System (DNS) zone (for example, www.foo.com, but not a.b.foo.com). By default, cookies are only returned to the server that sent them.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.replication.CookieSessionReplicationProperties.
  • cas.session-replication.cookie.http-only=true

    • true if this cookie contains the HttpOnly attribute. This means that the cookie should not be accessible to scripting engines, like javascript.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.replication.CookieSessionReplicationProperties.
  • cas.session-replication.cookie.max-age=-1

    • The maximum age of the cookie, specified in seconds. By default, -1 indicating the cookie will persist until browser shutdown. A positive value indicates that the cookie will expire after that many seconds have passed. Note that the value is the maximum age when the cookie will expire, not the cookie's current age. A negative value means that the cookie is not stored persistently and will be deleted when the Web browser exits. A zero value causes the cookie to be deleted.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.replication.CookieSessionReplicationProperties.
  • cas.session-replication.cookie.name=

    • Cookie name. Constructs a cookie with a specified name and value. The name must conform to RFC 2965. That means it can contain only ASCII alphanumeric characters and cannot contain commas, semicolons, or white space or begin with a $ character. The cookie's name cannot be changed after creation. By default, cookies are created according to the RFC 2965 cookie specification. Cookie names are automatically calculated assigned by CAS at runtime, and there is usually no need to customize the name or assign it a different value unless a special use case warrants the change.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.replication.CookieSessionReplicationProperties.
  • cas.session-replication.cookie.path=

    • Cookie path. Specifies a path for the cookie to which the client should return the cookie. The cookie is visible to all the pages in the directory you specify, and all the pages in that directory's subdirectories. A cookie's path must include the servlet that set the cookie, for example, /catalog, which makes the cookie visible to all directories on the server under /catalog. Consult RFC 2965 (available on the Internet) for more information on setting path names for cookies.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.replication.CookieSessionReplicationProperties.
  • cas.session-replication.cookie.pin-to-session=true

    • When generating cookie values, determine whether the value should be compounded and signed with the properties of the current session, such as IP address, user-agent, etc.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.replication.CookieSessionReplicationProperties.
  • cas.session-replication.cookie.same-site-policy=

    • If a cookie is only intended to be accessed in a first party context, the developer has the option to apply one of settings SameSite=Lax or SameSite=Strict or SameSite=None to prevent external access.

    To safeguard more websites and their users, the new secure-by-default model assumes all cookies should be protected from external access unless otherwise specified. Developers must use a new cookie setting, SameSite=None, to designate cookies for cross-site access. When the SameSite=None attribute is present, an additional Secure attribute is used so cross-site cookies can only be accessed over HTTPS connections.

    Accepted values are:

    • Lax
    • Strict
    • None
    • Off: Disable the generation of the SamSite cookie attribute altogether.
    • Fully qualified name of a class that implements org.apereo.cas.web.cookie.CookieSameSitePolicy

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.replication.CookieSessionReplicationProperties.
  • cas.session-replication.cookie.secure=true

    • True if sending this cookie should be restricted to a secure protocol, or false if the it can be sent using any protocol.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.support.replication.CookieSessionReplicationProperties.

    Configuration Metadata

    The collection of configuration properties listed in this section are automatically generated from the CAS source and components that contain the actual field definitions, types, descriptions, modules, etc. This metadata may not always be 100% accurate, or could be lacking details and sufficient explanations.

    Be Selective

    This section is meant as a guide only. Do NOT copy/paste the entire collection of settings into your CAS configuration; rather pick only the properties that you need. Do NOT enable settings unless you are certain of their purpose and do NOT copy settings into your configuration only to keep them as reference. All these ideas lead to upgrade headaches, maintenance nightmares and premature aging.

    YAGNI

    Note that for nearly ALL use cases, declaring and configuring properties listed here is sufficient. You should NOT have to explicitly massage a CAS XML/Java/etc configuration file to design an authentication handler, create attribute release policies, etc. CAS at runtime will auto-configure all required changes for you. If you are unsure about the meaning of a given CAS setting, do NOT turn it on without hesitation. Review the codebase or better yet, ask questions to clarify the intended behavior.

    Naming Convention

    Property names can be specified in very relaxed terms. For instance cas.someProperty, cas.some-property, cas.some_property are all valid names. While all forms are accepted by CAS, there are certain components (in CAS and other frameworks used) whose activation at runtime is conditional on a property value, where this property is required to have been specified in CAS configuration using kebab case. This is both true for properties that are owned by CAS as well as those that might be presented to the system via an external library or framework such as Spring Boot, etc. When possible, properties should be stored in lower-case kebab format, such as cas.property-name=value.S ettings and properties that are controlled by the CAS platform directly always begin with the prefix cas. All other settings are controlled and provided to CAS via other underlying frameworks and may have their own schemas and syntax. BE CAREFUL with the distinction. Unrecognized properties are rejected by CAS and/or frameworks upon which CAS depends. This means if you somehow misspell a property definition or fail to adhere to the dot-notation syntax and such, your setting is entirely refused by CAS and likely the feature it controls will never be activated in the way you intend.

    Validation

    Configuration properties are automatically validated on CAS startup to report issues with configuration binding, specially if defined CAS settings cannot be recognized or validated by the configuration schema. The validation process is on by default and can be skipped on startup using a special system property SKIP_CONFIG_VALIDATION that should be set to true. Additional validation processes are also handled via Configuration Metadata and property migrations applied automatically on startup by Spring Boot and family.

    Indexed Settings

    CAS settings able to accept multiple values are typically documented with an index, such as cas.some.setting[0]=value. The index [0] is meant to be incremented by the adopter to allow for distinct multiple configuration blocks.

    Webflow

    Certain aspects of the webflow configuration for delegated authentication can be controlled via the following settings:

    The following settings and properties are available from the CAS configuration catalog:

    The configuration settings listed below are tagged as Required in the CAS configuration metadata. This flag indicates that the presence of the setting may be needed to activate or affect the behavior of the CAS feature and generally should be reviewed, possibly owned and adjusted. If the setting is assigned a default value, you do not need to strictly put the setting in your copy of the configuration, but should review it nonetheless to make sure it matches your deployment expectations.

    The configuration settings listed below are tagged as Optional in the CAS configuration metadata. This flag indicates that the presence of the setting is not immediately necessary in the end-user CAS configuration, because a default value is assigned or the activation of the feature is not conditionally controlled by the setting value.

  • cas.authn.pac4j.webflow.enabled=true

    • Whether webflow auto-configuration should be enabled.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.web.flow.WebflowAutoConfigurationProperties.
  • cas.authn.pac4j.webflow.order=0

    • The order in which the webflow is configured.

    org.apereo.cas.configuration.model.core.web.flow.WebflowAutoConfigurationProperties.

    Configuration Metadata

    The collection of configuration properties listed in this section are automatically generated from the CAS source and components that contain the actual field definitions, types, descriptions, modules, etc. This metadata may not always be 100% accurate, or could be lacking details and sufficient explanations.

    Be Selective

    This section is meant as a guide only. Do NOT copy/paste the entire collection of settings into your CAS configuration; rather pick only the properties that you need. Do NOT enable settings unless you are certain of their purpose and do NOT copy settings into your configuration only to keep them as reference. All these ideas lead to upgrade headaches, maintenance nightmares and premature aging.

    YAGNI

    Note that for nearly ALL use cases, declaring and configuring properties listed here is sufficient. You should NOT have to explicitly massage a CAS XML/Java/etc configuration file to design an authentication handler, create attribute release policies, etc. CAS at runtime will auto-configure all required changes for you. If you are unsure about the meaning of a given CAS setting, do NOT turn it on without hesitation. Review the codebase or better yet, ask questions to clarify the intended behavior.

    Naming Convention

    Property names can be specified in very relaxed terms. For instance cas.someProperty, cas.some-property, cas.some_property are all valid names. While all forms are accepted by CAS, there are certain components (in CAS and other frameworks used) whose activation at runtime is conditional on a property value, where this property is required to have been specified in CAS configuration using kebab case. This is both true for properties that are owned by CAS as well as those that might be presented to the system via an external library or framework such as Spring Boot, etc. When possible, properties should be stored in lower-case kebab format, such as cas.property-name=value.S ettings and properties that are controlled by the CAS platform directly always begin with the prefix cas. All other settings are controlled and provided to CAS via other underlying frameworks and may have their own schemas and syntax. BE CAREFUL with the distinction. Unrecognized properties are rejected by CAS and/or frameworks upon which CAS depends. This means if you somehow misspell a property definition or fail to adhere to the dot-notation syntax and such, your setting is entirely refused by CAS and likely the feature it controls will never be activated in the way you intend.

    Validation

    Configuration properties are automatically validated on CAS startup to report issues with configuration binding, specially if defined CAS settings cannot be recognized or validated by the configuration schema. The validation process is on by default and can be skipped on startup using a special system property SKIP_CONFIG_VALIDATION that should be set to true. Additional validation processes are also handled via Configuration Metadata and property migrations applied automatically on startup by Spring Boot and family.

    Indexed Settings

    CAS settings able to accept multiple values are typically documented with an index, such as cas.some.setting[0]=value. The index [0] is meant to be incremented by the adopter to allow for distinct multiple configuration blocks.

    Troubleshooting

    To enable additional logging, configure the log4j configuration file to add the following levels:

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    ...
<Logger name="org.pac4j" level="debug" additivity="false">
    <AppenderRef ref="console"/>
    <AppenderRef ref="file"/>
</Logger>
...